A UK construction project appears on a public planning register before it reaches tender, and each later planning stage adds a record that shows how close the work is to site. Subcontractors and suppliers who read those records in order can identify the developer, the design team and often the main contractor before package enquiries go out.
This guide covers England, where the stages and time limits below are set by the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and its secondary legislation. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate systems, summarised near the end. It sits alongside LCM's guide to finding London subcontractor tenders and uses the same source discipline as LCM's construction market intelligence framework.
Construction site in Tottenham Court Road, London, in September 2026. Photo: London Construction Magazine
What the planning register holds
The planning register is the statutory record every local planning authority in England must keep under article 40 of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015. It must contain a copy of each application with its plans and drawings, any design and access statement, the decision with its conditions, and any planning obligation proposed or entered into. Entries have to be made within 14 days.
The order does not require the register to be online. An authority that keeps it electronically may publish it on a website, and most do, but each council runs its own system and there is no single national search.
LCM's planning-to-procurement stage map
LCM's planning-to-procurement stage map sets out the 12 points at which a major scheme in England leaves a public record, what each record shows and what it leaves open. LCM compiled it from the legislation and government guidance linked in this guide, and the reading of each signal is LCM's own.
| Stage | Public record | What it shows | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-application | Usually none. Advice requests are not part of the statutory register, though developers of large schemes often hold public consultations. | A scheme is being designed. No commitment to apply. | Note the site, developer and architect. |
| EIA screening and scoping | Screening and scoping opinions, placed on the register. | A large or sensitive scheme is in preparation. No application yet. | Add the site to a watch list. |
| Outline application | Application form, plans and decision notice, with design details reserved. | The principle and scale of development. No final design, builder or start date. | Check the ownership certificate and watch for reserved matters. |
| Full application | Form, drawings, design and access statement and technical reports. | The detailed design and the consultant team. No evidence of funding or a contractor. | List the packages the drawings imply and record the named consultants. |
| Committee resolution | Officer's report and committee minutes. | Councillors have resolved to grant. Permission has not been issued. | Watch for the Section 106 agreement and the decision notice. |
| Section 106 agreement | The planning obligation, entered on the register. | The obligations are fixed and the parties with an interest in the land are named. | Read it for highways and infrastructure works. |
| Decision notice | The permission, its conditions and its time limit. | Permission exists. Work must begin within three years. | Diarise the expiry date and count the conditions to be cleared before work starts. |
| Reserved matters | Detailed applications tied to an outline permission. | A developer is fixing the design of a phase. | Treat it as a full application. |
| Discharge of conditions | Applications to approve details required by condition, such as a construction management plan. | The scheme is being prepared for site. The plan often names the contractor. | Download the plan and approach the contractor it names. |
| Section 96A and Section 73 amendments | Amendment applications and decisions. | The approved design is being changed. The time limit is not extended. | Compare the revised drawings with the originals for changes to your package. |
| CIL commencement notice | A notice to the collecting authority giving the intended start date. Not every council publishes it. | The developer has declared a start date. | Ask the council for it if it is not online. Early packages are probably let. |
| Expiry | No notice is issued. The time limit in the decision notice passes. | The permission has lapsed unless work began in time. | Check for a fresh application or a new owner. |
The time limits come from sections 91 and 92 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. In England, development under a full permission must begin within three years of the grant. Under an outline permission, reserved matters applications must be made within three years and work must begin within two years of the final approval.
Amendments do not reset that clock. Government guidance on flexible options for planning permissions says a Section 73 approval creates a new permission alongside the original but cannot extend the deadline for starting work, and a Section 96A non-material amendment is normally decided within 28 days.
Names to take from the documents
The application form names the applicant and the agent, and its ownership certificate shows who holds the land. Government guidance on making an application explains that Certificate A means the applicant is the sole owner, while Certificate B means there are other owners the applicant has identified. An applicant on Certificate B does not control the whole site, so a sale or land deal may come before any building contract.
A design and access statement is required for major development and usually credits the architect and the engineers. The construction management plan arrives later, as a condition is discharged, and it is normally prepared by or for the firm that will run the site. For a subcontractor that plan is often the first public document carrying the main contractor's name.
The Community Infrastructure Levy commencement notice is the last record before work starts. Regulation 67 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 requires it to reach the collecting authority by the day before a chargeable development begins and to state the intended start date. It applies only where a council charges the levy and the development is liable.
Matching a planning record to a public tender
Public bodies such as councils, NHS trusts and government departments must advertise their contracts under the Procurement Act 2023, so their schemes can be followed from the planning register to Find a Tender. Private developers are not bound by the Act, and their packages are let through main contractors' own supply chains.
Three notice types appear before a tender. The pipeline notice guidance says an authority expecting to spend more than £100m in the coming financial year must list its planned contracts worth more than £2m over an 18-month period, and publish the list within 56 days of the start of the year. A preliminary market engagement notice must be published before the tender notice where the authority has consulted the market, and a planned procurement notice gives advance warning of a tender.
No official tool links a planning reference to a procurement notice. The match has to be made on the name of the authority, the site address and the description of the works, and it should be checked against the dates: a pipeline entry for a school extension means little until the planning application for that school can be found.
Higher-risk buildings
Higher-risk buildings in England pass through a second approval after planning, run by the Building Safety Regulator. These are buildings at least 18 metres or seven storeys high with at least two residential units, and government guidance on building control approval applications, last updated on 1 October 2026, says work on a new one cannot start until the regulator approves it. The regulator has up to 12 weeks to assess a valid application for a new building.
The client must appoint a competent principal contractor, and the regulator checks that appointment. On these schemes the main contractor is therefore in place before construction is approved, which moves the window for specialist packages earlier than on other projects. LCM's Gateway 2 Approval Index tracks applications, decisions and timescales.
The planning stage carries an earlier marker. Since 1 August 2021, applications for buildings of that height containing two or more dwellings have needed a fire statement, which is placed on the planning register.
Planning permission and the start on site
Planning permission is consent to build, and the gap before work starts is measured in months. The Competition and Markets Authority's housebuilding market study, published on 26 February 2024, estimated in Appendix F that the 11 largest housebuilders took an average of 0.8 years from detailed permission to starting construction, on projects completed between 2020 and 2023. Moving from outline to detailed permission took 0.7 to 1.1 years.
Some permissions never reach site. The records that show a scheme has stalled are an outline permission with no reserved matters applications as its three-year limit approaches, a run of Section 73 applications with no conditions being discharged, and a new applicant name on later submissions. Where the applicant is a company formed for one site, its filings at Companies House show who controls it and whether it is still active.
Free sources and their limits
Council planning registers are the primary source, and the other free services in England are partial. The government's Planning Data platform collects planning and housing data from local authorities, but its About page said "the data does not yet cover all of England" when LCM checked it on 11 November 2026. In London, the Greater London Authority's Planning London Datahub brings together application data from the capital's planning authorities.
Nationally significant infrastructure projects such as large power stations and major roads are not decided by councils. The Planning Inspectorate lists them, with their documents, on Find a National Infrastructure Project.
Outside England the records differ. In Wales a full permission lasts five years under section 91 of the 1990 Act. Northern Ireland has a single Planning Portal for most councils, with Mid Ulster District Council running its own, and documents are online only for applications from 2010. Scotland has its own planning legislation and its registers are kept by its planning authorities.
Frequently asked questions
Is there one free database of every UK planning application?
No. England's registers are kept council by council, the government's Planning Data platform is incomplete, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems.
No. England's registers are kept council by council, the government's Planning Data platform is incomplete, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems.
Does a committee resolution to grant mean the scheme has permission?
No. Permission exists only when the decision notice is issued, which on schemes needing a Section 106 agreement normally follows the signing of that agreement.
No. Permission exists only when the decision notice is issued, which on schemes needing a Section 106 agreement normally follows the signing of that agreement.
Which planning record is the best sign that work is about to start?
A Community Infrastructure Levy commencement notice gives the intended start date. Where no levy applies, applications to discharge the conditions that must be cleared before work begins are the closest equivalent.
A Community Infrastructure Levy commencement notice gives the intended start date. Where no levy applies, applications to discharge the conditions that must be cleared before work begins are the closest equivalent.